In case you have forgotten about the hordes of protesters, Quran burning pastors, taxi slashing college students, GOP politicizing and superfluous City hearings, Park51 is the proposed Islamic cultural center in Lower Manhattan that evoked a long overdue conversation last year.

But that was last year. Surely, after overcoming so many hurdles and staring anti-Americanism in its face to say “we are Americans too, and we love our country,” the project should have transitioned from proposed site to actual construction.

Unfortunately, Park51 has proven to be just as valuable and tangible as the Occupy protests: it promotes a timely and overdue dialogue, but when you hand them the proverbial ball, all they do is dribble and pass it to the next guy to shoot for an air ball.

Ever since the Landmark Preservation’s Commission unanimously voted that the 152-year old ran down and unused Burlington Coat Factory two blocks away from the World Trade Center site was not a landmark, the Islamic center’s developers have remained relatively out of the limelight. Perhaps the most disappointing aspect of their sudden silence was that it occurred when their support was at an all-time high, especially from Mayor Michael Bloomberg.

In fact, Bloomberg was so gung-ho for Park51 that he delivered some of his most eloquent press addresses in his 3-term career. “We would betray our values and play into our enemies’ hands if we were to treat Muslims differently than anyone else,” he told the press from Governor’s island with the back drop of the Statue of Liberty. “There is no neighborhood in this city that is off-limits to God’s love and mercy.”

If there was ever a time to raise funds and get the bricks laid for Park51, September 2010 was golden — Eid fell on the same week as 9/11’s 9th anniversary, the president ordered Christian extremist and Quran burner Terry Jones to cut his shenanigans and the general public grew conscious and empathic towards the rise of Islamaphobia in our nation.

Well, here’s your Park51 update: the center’s imams have dropped like flies because of fear of media attention, the rendering for the site and its proposed programs revolve as much as the door to the NYSE, a single exhibit has been opened in the space next to the proposed site (I will say, however, that the exhibit is a touching visual presentation of all the children of different ethnicities and nationalities who are represented in Manhattan), the board isn’t even remotely close to raising the $100 million construction bill, unemployed college graduates are being sent to canvas and pander struggling passersby and apathetic suit-and-tie workers while being paid minimum wage, and even worse, developer Sharif El-Gamal has failed to keep up with the proposed site’s Con Edison bill.

How is it possible for El-Gamal to turn all of Park51’s steam into $1.7 million of unpaid bills since 2008 and a desperate claim of bias when Con Ed was one of the center’s staunch supporters? The answer: the same reason why Occupy is sleeping at the microphone, or make that bullhorn and PDA system, as the window of opportunity closes inch-by-inch. If all El-Gamal wanted was a dialogue, then he succeeded in 2010. However, if he wanted a 15 story Islamic cultural center with educational, health, family, religious and community services to rid America of unfounded tension and create a new sense of unity, then he is clearly failing.

I was one of the loudest and staunchest supporters of Park51 at the University of Rochester. I rallied with the Interfaith Alliance of Rochester, provided in-depth coverage of the dialogue in the Campus Times, and backed Students for Interfaith Action in their efforts to promote interfaith unity. Unfortunately, El-Gamal has failed to deliver. Perhaps it aren’t the imams who should be the ones getting juggled around for their old sermons and past congregants. When a venture is failing, it ought to be the developer who is held accountable. This project is too big to fail, but it somehow continues to silently spiral in the clutches of mismanagement.

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